Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Without getting into the discussion about trolleys, the fact that we are seeing more people attending accident and emergency departments and GP surgeries and occupying more hospital beds this week compared with last week - fewer of them have Covid-19 - is a sign that the health service is getting busier and is trying to get back to as much business as usual in a very different way. The Deputy made the point to me in this House and to the Taoiseach that the non-Covid care plan had to belong to the HSE, not NPHET. I agree with him - it does belong to the HSE. I do not say that to pass the buck. The HSE is doing a great job on the plan, which went to its board last night. I expect it to be in a position in the coming days - and before I appear in this House next week - to be able to share the details of that, but I am satisfied that it has done a huge amount of work. I do need to say that the number of vacant beds is falling significantly.

On the national screening service, it is not unreasonable for the Deputy to ask for a date. Dates for when programmes will be resumed will be provided in the calendar month of June. However, I have been down this road of screening before and I will not give commitments that cannot be stood over. It will involve screening being done in different ways. It may involve a phased recommencement and clinical decisions as to who is to be called first. Those decisions should be made by clinicians. There is a working group. I will write to the Deputy regarding the date on which it was established because, truthfully, I do not know. It is chaired by Dr. Caroline Mason Mohan. The Deputy made a point about buying a pint but I know that he knows the screening service far better than that. We could say today "You can turn back on screening because the sample takers are ready or the labs are waiting" but all we will do is create a backlog if we do not have all parts of it ready. We need to get that right as well.

Regarding intellectual disabilities, the Deputy is right. I do expect that we will be in a position to recommence some of them at the end of this month. On the issue of morbidity and some of the data, I will have to write to the Deputy because I do not have the relevant information to hand.

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